The present invention relates generally to building management systems and more particularly to a building management system that uses near field communications (NFC) tags to facilitate monitoring and controlling building equipment.
A building management system (BMS) is, in general, a system of devices configured to control, monitor, and manage equipment in or around a building or building area. A BMS can include, for example, a HVAC system, a security system, a lighting system, a fire alerting system, any other system that is capable of managing building functions or devices, or any combination thereof.
Conventional BMSs use input from thermostats to measure the temperature of building spaces and to define temperature setpoints for the building spaces. The thermostats are typically mounted on walls within the building spaces. Each thermostat may include a temperature sensor and a user interface. The user interface typically includes an electronic display for presenting information to a user and one or more physical input devices (e.g., a rotary knob, pushbuttons, manually-operable switches, etc.) for receiving input from a user. The temperature sensor measures the temperature of the building space and provides the measured temperature to the user interface. To monitor the temperature of the building space, a user is required to move to the location of thermostat and view the measured temperature via the thermostat's user interface. To control the temperature of the building space, the user adjusts the temperature setpoint via the thermostat's user interface.